Piracy in China has reached a new milestone - fake Apple stores.

BEIJING - CHINA, a country known for its rampant piracy, has now reached a new milestone - fake Apple stores. An American blogger who lives in Kunming in southern Yunnan province said on Thursday that she stumbled on three shops masquerading as bona fide Apple stores a few days ago. She says the employees told her they worked for Apple. She posted photos online showing the employees wearing blue Apple T-shirts. Apple has four company stores in China as well as various authorised resellers, who are not allowed to be Apple replicas. The manager of one authorised seller in Kunming, who gave only his surname Zhang, says some staff in the fake stores 'can't even operate computers properly'. Apple's Asia office based in Beijing would not comment. -- AP